Re: Stan Gardner's Question

["Janice T. Pilch" <pilch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is a response to Marc Lindsey's reply, which was very informative. I
have never been aware of sovereign immunity from copyright infringement
for state institutions. Might you recommend a legal source on this?

Thank you.

Janice Pilch

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Janice T. Pilch, Assistant Professor of Library Administration
Slavic and East European Technical Services Librarian
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Slavic and East European Library, 225 University Library
1408 West Gregory Drive, Urbana, Illinois 61801
Tel. (217) 244-9399
E-mail: pilch@xxxxxxxx

On Thu, 12 Sep 2002 lindseym@xxxxxxx wrote:

> This is responding to Stan Gardner's question.Whether or not the multiple
> emails of an entire article for a classroom assignment qualifies as fair
> use could be decided either way depending on what federal appellate circuit
> you're in. The Second Circuit (ruling in the American Geophysical Union
> case) and the Sixth Circuit (ruling in the Michigan Document Services case)
> would tend to rule against this as fair use, I think. Let's look at the
> four fair use factors: The purpose is educational and nonprofit so this
> factor votes FOR fair use. The second factor, nature of the article copied,
> we don't know. If it's scientific or technical it votes FOR fair use. If
> it's a purely fictional or dramatical article it votes AGAINST fair use.
> The third factor is, how much of the original is copied. Because the entire
> article was copied, this votes AGAINST fair use. I believe the outcome
> would be decided on the final factor, potential effect on the
> author/publisher's commercial market for the article. If many classes in
> many colleges did the same thing, the market for selling subscriptions
> could potentially be affected adversely since students might otherwise
> purchase a subscription to complete the assignment.
>
> So I believe the scenario BARELY tips against fair use. But...if the
> college is a state institution, it's only an ethical issue because state
> institutions are immune from infringement suits.Sovereign Immunity, folks.
> For state colleges, it's time to consider what is ethical and reasonable,
> not what is legal liability.
>
> Marc Lindsey
> Copyright Specialist
> Washington State University